Here’s an unexpected but pleasant little way tech might be able to improve a few lives: laser shoes. Yes, seriously. Shoes equipped with small laser emitters were shown in recent tests to help sufferers of Parkinson’s disease to walk normally.

The Georgian Bedale Leech House in Bedale, North Yorkshire is the last standing leech house in the United Kingdom. It was constructed to keep them alive, fresh, and hungry for blood while they waited for druggists or doctors to use them for bloodletting.

The Monument to the Laboratory Mouse can be found in a courtyard at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Akademgorodok, Russia, a research facility associated with Novosibirsk State University that seeks to better understand the nature of DNA. The mighty mouse is of the anthropomorphic variety, with glasses, dressed in a lab coat, and studiously knitting a DNA double helix.

Some people, no matter what they do, simply cannot fall asleep until the wee hours—and do not feel rested unless they get up much later than most of us. These night owls may have a common form of insomnia called delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD), which studies have suggested is at least partly heritable. Now researchers at the Rockefeller University and their colleagues have uncovered a genetic mutation that may explain why this condition sometimes runs in families. And it could elucidate the mechanism that causes these often awkward sleep schedules.